Noam Chomsky: The Paranoia of the Superrich and Superpowerful

Does the United States still have the same level of control over the energy resources of the Middle East as it once had?

The major energy-producing countries are still firmly under the control of the Western-backed dictatorships. So, actually, the progress made by the Arab Spring is limited, but itís not insignificant. The Western-controlled dictatorial system is eroding. In fact, itís been eroding for some time. So, for example, if you go back 50 years, the energy resources -- the main concern of U.S. planners -- have been mostly nationalized. There are constantly attempts to reverse that, but they have not succeeded.

Take the U.S. invasion of Iraq, for example. To everyone except a dedicated ideologue, it was pretty obvious that we invaded Iraq not because of our love of democracy but because itís maybe the second- or third-largest source of oil in the world, and is right in the middle of the major energy-producing region. Youíre not supposed to say this. Itís considered a conspiracy theory.

The United States was seriously defeated in Iraq by Iraqi nationalism -- mostly by nonviolent resistance. The United States could kill the insurgents, but they couldnít deal with half a million people demonstrating in the streets. Step by step, Iraq was able to dismantle the controls put in place by the occupying forces. By November 2007, it was becoming pretty clear that it was going to be very hard to reach U.S. goals. And at that point, interestingly, those goals were explicitly stated. So in November 2007 the Bush II administration came out with an official declaration about what any future arrangement with Iraq would have to be. It had two major requirements: one, that the United States must be free to carry out combat operations from its military bases, which it will retain; and two, ďencouraging the flow of foreign investments to Iraq, especially American investments.Ē In January 2008, Bush made this clear in one of his signing statements. A couple of months later, in the face of Iraqi resistance, the United States had to give that up. Control of Iraq is now disappearing before their eyes.

Iraq was an attempt to reinstitute by force something like the old system of control, but it was beaten back. In general, I think, U.S. policies remain constant, going back to the Second World War. But the capacity to implement them is declining.

12. What is more of a shame, imo, is Americans largely accepting a pre-emptive war

of aggression based on a PNAC ideology and seemingly caring little how much carnage, death, and destruction were inflicted in our name, all for oil, empire, and hegemony. This, imo, speaks volumes of us as a nation and a people, and if so, suggests some serious soul-searching is in order.

9. Noam Chomsky . . .

Noam Chomsky is a national treasure. He represents the true American independent, neither cowed nor bribed into voicing the stale, institutional platitudes so ofter required of prominent academics. As a fearless champion of the oppressed and the disenfranchised, he has done much to open minds and encourage justice for the relatively powerless, whether they are our supposed friends or our supposed enemies.

In this piece he is once again dead on. We are, in fact, a modern empire, ruling over vast areas of the planet through military coercion and economic pressure. Any nation which refuses to be "integrated" into our "One World Economy" will soon find itself, to one degree or another, isolated and shunned by most other nations. Chomsky is also correct in predicting our grip will only slip more and more as time progresses. In another decade or two, the U.S. will no longer be calling all the shots, as is largely the case today.